introduction
In 2005, a female athlete became famous at the Melbourne World Championships with the "Cheng Fei Jump" and won the first gold medal in the women's vault at the World Championships in the history of Chinese gymnastics. And "Cheng Fei jump" also became the first vaulting move named after Chinese in the history of gymnastics.
And this female athlete is Cheng Fei.
01 Chen Fei competes in the Olympic Games
Cheng Fei, a native of Huangshi, Hubei Province, is a member of the Chinese gymnastics team and a rising star of the Chinese women's team in recent years. Her outstanding leg strength made up for the long-term lack of the Chinese women's gymnastics team, making the Chinese women's team a major breakthrough in the weak vault and floor exercise.
She is China's first women's vault world champion and the Chinese female gymnast who has won the most world championships to date.
Her original movement on the jumping horse "tendon rear hand flip body 180 degrees and front straight flip 540 degrees", not only won the first vault gold medal for Chinese women's gymnastics at the 38th World Championships in 2005, but was also named "Cheng Fei jump" by the International Sports Federation.
Cheng Fei became famous overnight, winning all gymnastics star awards in 2005, and her popularity index skyrocketed.
In 2006, Cheng Fei led the Chinese women's team to win the first women's team world championship in the history of the Chinese team at the Gymnastics World Championships, and won three gold medals in the women's team, vault and floor exercise.
In 2007, Cheng Fei became the first female athlete in the world to win the vault championship in three consecutive World Championships. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Cheng Fei and her teammates made a new history, winning the first women's team gold medal in the history of the Olympic Games for the Chinese women's gymnastics team.
On August 13, 2008, Cheng Feiyi, captain of the women's team of the Chinese gymnastics team, led the five new "old", and the Chinese women's gymnastics team made history and won the first team gold medal in the Olympic Games.
When the music played, the Chinese gymnastics women who appeared in the center of the field were wearing a red headband, looking very cute.
After the game, Cheng Fei revealed: This is the idea I thought of for my teammates, that is, I want red to bring us good luck and cheer everyone up!
As the only person among the 6 team members who has experienced the disastrous defeat of the Athens Olympics, Cheng Fei carries far more in his heart than the 5 "newborn calves".
While waiting for the game, Cheng Fei communicated with the coach for a while, and cheered up the little junior sisters for a while.
In the high-low bar match, the US team in front of the game performed very well, which put a lot of psychological pressure on the Chinese team players who played in the back.
Before Jiang Yuyuan came on the court, Cheng Fei, who had no competition task, held her hands tightly, and after whispering a few words, Cheng Fei helped Jiang Yuyuan with makeup like a big sister and sent her to the competition field with a smile.
Seeing He Kexin withstanding the pressure of failure in the preliminary round and successfully completing the action, Cheng Fei excitedly carried her off the stage.
As a result, in this event, Jiang Yuyuan, Yang Yilin and He Kexin performed fantastic perfections, allowing the Chinese team to not only recover the 0.525 points behind in the vault event, but also surpass the American team by 1.125 points.
20-year-old Cheng Fei led five little sisters who were only 16 years old to break through the Olympic Games. She is definitely a well-deserved and good captain.
"I'm not a hero today, I can only say that everyone had a thrilling day."
The Beijing Olympic gold medal has been hung on his chest, but Cheng Fei still blames herself a little after the game.
Because in the balance beam competition, Cheng Fei, who was the first to appear, made a major mistake and was the only member of the Chinese team to drop the equipment. At that moment, the hearts of everyone at the scene were raised to their throats and eyes.
In the exclamations of the audience, she calmly continued to do the complete set of movements, landed steadily, and ended the curtain gracefully, and then walked down silently, Cheng Fei carefully sorted out the battle robe, and sometimes glanced at the electronic scoreboard not far away.
With 15.150 points, ranked last among the three players of the Chinese team, Cheng Fei shook her head gently and began to seriously wrap the bandages on her feet. Because, there is also the finale in the floor exercise waiting for Cheng Fei to perform.
"The mistake on the balance beam is because I have been used to doing it at the back of the line for so long, so today is a bit of a mess. At that time, I myself was somewhat ill-prepared and did not completely calm down; But when I jumped back on the balance beam, I stopped getting nervous and I continued to make every move work. ”
The opportunity on the decisive battlefield is fleeting, and Cheng Fei is not allowed to think too much about the mistakes that have passed. Withstanding the pressure, Cheng Fei completed the rest of the game well, stabilized the army's heart, and laid a solid foundation for the final victory of the women's team championship.
02 Chen Fei lost twice
Although Cheng Fei made an accidental mistake in the balance beam event, the second-placed American team was more nervous, and one player fell off as soon as he got on the wood, chasing the Chinese team by 0.125 points in this category alone.
The Chinese team entered the final floor exercise competition with a one-point lead, and the United States, who were behind, began to feel the pressure.
There are three places in floor exercise, and Liukin and Sean Johnson's movements are somewhat flawed. The girls of the Chinese team are fighting more and more bravely under the leadership of Cheng Fei, and Jiang Yuyuan and Yang Yilin have performed very well.
Finally, the last member of the Chinese team is about to appear, and who can have the last laugh between the Chinese team and the American team, the mystery is about to be revealed. The finale will be starring Cheng Fei.
It's an honor and a huge pressure. From the rest area, head coach Lu Shanzhen has been accompanying Cheng Fei to the edge of the competition table. This pair of masters and apprentices, who love father and daughter, no longer need any language at this moment.
The waters of the Yellow River let out a roar; The drum of Jingyun, beating the highest rhythm. The orchestration of the soundtrack accompanied by the imposing "Yellow River" pushed the atmosphere to a climax.
Cheng Fei did a series of difficult somersaults when he came out, and he could not see the impact of the previous balance beam mistake. A set of difficult and artistic expression-like movements pushed the emotions of the audience to the highest peak.
Liu Xuan stood up, Hun Mov stood up... As soon as the music ended, the score had not yet come out, but the victory clearly belonged to China. Lu Shanzhen rushed to the sidelines and hugged his love tightly.
The score is out: 15.450 points! The first Chinese team scored 188.90 points among all the players, winning the championship by 2375 points higher than the first place American team.
Chinese women's gymnastics has achieved a historic breakthrough, winning the Olympic team gold medal for the first time! The excited Cheng Fei waved her fists vigorously, cheering for the whole team and herself!
The first vaulting move named after a Chinese female athlete, China's first women's vault world champion, and the first female gymnast to defend the world championship, the name Cheng Fei has always been closely associated with the historical breakthrough of Chinese women's gymnastics.
The appearance of Cheng Fei is of greater significance in filling the gap in vault and floor exercise in Chinese women's gymnastics, changing the image of the Chinese women's team that has long been regarded as infully developed in the international sports arena, only longer than the two individual events of uneven bars and balance beams, and let the world re-recognize Chinese women's gymnastics.
At the 2006 Ahus World Championships, it was precisely because of Cheng Fei's breakthroughs in vault and floor exercise that Chinese women's gymnastics had all-round super strength and won the first women's team world championship in history.
Cheng Fei herself not only defended her title on the vault, but also won the laurels of floor exercise. At the Beijing Olympics, as the captain, Cheng Fei led the Chinese gymnastics women's team to defeat the old rival the United States and win China's first Olympic women's team championship, once again creating the history of Chinese gymnastics.
The 20-year-old Cheng Fei achieved her gymnastics Grand Slam with an Olympic gold medal. As the leader of the Chinese team, Cheng Fei has experienced unimaginable hardships for ordinary people, and in the face of difficulties, she has shown the world the Olympic spirit that is more precious than the gold medal with her actions.
As the triple vault champion at the World Championships, Cheng Fei is determined to win the gold medal on vault at the Beijing Olympics. Unfortunately, in the good situation that the first jump was very successful, the overeager yearning for this gold medal led her to make a big mistake in the landing move in the second jump and her famous move "Cheng Fei jump", and only won the bronze medal.
I don't know if because she has not completely got rid of the shadow of being frustrated in the strong vault, in the next floor exercise final, Cheng Fei did not have enough strength when completing a somersault, accidentally sat on the ground, fell out of the top three, and missed the medal.
03 Chen Fei's personal experience
The successive setbacks caused Cheng Fei to suffer an unprecedented blow. On the field, Cheng Fei walked to the corner. With his back to the camera, his hands against the wall, he finally couldn't help crying.
She usually shows a strong, mature, optimistic image of her shoulders and cries very sadly, until the coach came over and put her arms around her shoulders to silently comfort, she stopped crying, wiped her tears, fought hard, and returned to the field.
But the grim situation did not end with tears, and two days later Cheng Fei will participate in another individual balance beam final. At this time, low mood is Cheng Fei's biggest enemy.
The next day, her eyes were swollen with tears, and at one point she wanted to give up the balance beam final. As the captain of the women's team, Cheng Fei's mood directly affects the morale of the team. If she withdraws, the performance of the entire women's team in the following games will probably be greatly affected.
Just when many people were regretting that Cheng Fei lost the Olympic vault gold medal and were worried that she would collapse, the strong Cheng Fei quickly adjusted in the face of huge setbacks with extraordinary willpower and super psychological quality, quickly recovered her fighting spirit and cheered up.
This girl who is just 20 years old, the incomparable strength and bravery contained in her thin body is really admirable! This spirit is more valuable than gold medals!
At the balance beam final two days later, Cheng Fei was scrappy, and there was not a trace of frustration or frustration on her face. With a confident smile, Cheng Fei was the first to appear.
Although the draw was unfavorable, her full set of moves was done decisively, beautifully, and steadily, and as a result, she won a valuable bronze medal for the Chinese team in an event that she was not good at.
Although she did not get the gold medal she wanted most, Cheng Fei, who received the award, smiled very happily, perhaps she was also thinking that she had won not only the bronze medal, but a gold medal with a purer and more noble color than ordinary gold medals.
It's a rare thing to be able to overcome yourself in a back-to-back setback against the game, without letting the shadow of defeat in front of you affect your performance.
I believe that with this kind of experience, she will not have any difficulties that she cannot overcome on her own life road in the future! And Cheng Fei's tenacious fighting spirit of increasing frustration.
It is believed that it will also become the most valuable spiritual wealth of the Chinese gymnastics women's team, passed down from generation to generation. We have reason to believe that Cheng Fei will bring us a new era of Chinese gymnastics.
So, how did Cheng Fei grow?
In 1988, Cheng Fei was in an ordinary family in Huangshi City, Hubei Province. Cheng Fei's father is called Cheng Ligao, who is not only a workshop dispatcher, but also a sports fan who has practiced table tennis and martial arts.
Her mother, Xu Chunxiang, is an ordinary worker in a tire factory. The family lives in a tube building of only 30 or 40 square meters, living a poor life.
Because Cheng Ligao once had the experience of practicing martial arts, from the day his daughter was born, he secretly pondered to let his daughter choose a sports program to practice, and consciously educated him in sports.
When Cheng Fei learned to walk, Cheng Ligao began to educate her in sports. Often take her up and down the steps, and seeing that she dances well, he will take a round plaque and pretend to give her an award. According to Cheng Ligao's own recollections:
"My daughter was very enthusiastic about 'winning awards' when she was very young, and she enjoyed winning awards when she was more than one year old."
When Cheng Fei was about 3 years old, Cheng Fei began to think about letting her daughter learn a sports project. Considering that he and his wife are not tall, Cheng Fei decided to choose one of table tennis and gymnastics, which do not require much height.
So, the father sent his daughter to the Yellowstone Amateur Sports School. But Cheng Fei is not interested in table tennis at all, but she has to be enthusiastic when practicing gymnastics.
So, the coach sent Xiao Chengfei to learn gymnastics, and she embarked on the road of gymnastics. Cheng Ligao saw that his daughter was not tired of practicing gymnastics, and he also created a set of training methods by himself:
Hang a bar at home as a horizontal bar; Hanging two bars is the parallel bar, and two lines are drawn on the ground, which is Cheng Fei's balance beam. It is this inconspicuous training method that has laid a solid foundation for Cheng Fei.
04 From peak to retirement
If Xiao Chengfei wants to practice gymnastics well, the first thing is to overcome the deficiencies in her love of physical fitness. The coach found that she walked with an innate "outer eight characters", so she said to Cheng Fei on the first day of entering the museum:
"After entering the training hall, you must learn to walk on tiptoe so that there will be no outer eight."
When Cheng Fei heard the coach say this, she obediently stood on tiptoe. But it was not an easy task to overcome Waihachi, and her father even took a white cloth several feet long and tied her up from her legs and knees down.
At first, Cheng Fei cried and made trouble, refusing to tie up. In this regard, his wife is also very worried, Cheng Ligao said: "Even if you don't practice gymnastics, you must correct it for her future physical beauty." ”
Under the common comfort of her parents, Xiao Chengfei stopped crying. In order to keep their daughter going, the couple also tied their legs.
In this way, she insisted on tying her legs for several months, and finally corrected the genetic "outer eight characters".
After two years of training at Huangshi Sports School, Cheng Fei, who was only 7 years old, entered Wuhan Institute of Physical Education. Since Cheng Fei is not an official member of the sports institute, the training fee and living expenses have to be paid by herself.
After calculation, Cheng Fei's monthly living expenses and tuition fees add up to 1,000, but the couple's monthly salary is only 1,000 yuan, and they are unable to support their daughter's study.
To keep their daughter in school, the couple bought a knitting machine. Every day after work, gloves are woven and sold for two dimes.
But even so, they could not support their daughter's studies, and the couple borrowed money everywhere, and even planned to give up. It wasn't until one day that the gymnastics team coach discovered that Cheng Fei was in the wrong mood and didn't understand the reason.
They felt that Chen Fei was a good seedling, and they couldn't bear her to abandon training for financial reasons, so they took part of each person's salary to help her pay her tuition.
Chen Fei saw that the coach was so generous, and he studied even harder. A year later, Chen Fei won many awards in various competitions. Even though she is the youngest in the crowd, she has the most beautiful movements.
Chen Fei's results were so good, the coach asked the sports institute to give her the treatment of a formal sports student. In this way, the sports institute approved the request and enjoyed the treatment of official team members.
Since then, Chen Fei's has become the youngest member of the Wuhan Sports Institute, and she no longer has to worry about living expenses, she is only 8 years old at this time.
In February 2002, Chen Fei officially joined the national team and stepped onto a bigger stage. In the past few years when she first entered the national team, Chen Fei's skills were relatively weak and young, and she was not favored by the coach.
It wasn't until 2004, when one of the team members was unable to participate in the Olympics due to illness, that he had the valuable opportunity to travel abroad for the Athens Olympics.
Before that, she had no experience competing abroad, but she still finished fourth in the floor exercise competition.
After this competition, the coach decided to focus on letting her practice vaulting. At first, Chen Fei was still a little worried. Once, he said to his father, "My strength is floor exercise, but the coach told me to vault." ”
At that time, vaulting was a weakness in Chinese sports, and there was no precedent for women to win world championships. But Cheng Ligao said to his daughter:
"You have to listen to the coach, there are more women in floor exercise, and the competition is fierce. But there are fewer vaulters, you have strong legs, as long as you practice the vault well, it is easier to win the prize. ”
Sure enough, Cheng Fei made a splash at the 38th World Gymnastics Championships in Melbourne in 2005. She successfully won China's first vault world championship and refreshed the history of Chinese women's vaulting.
05 What happened to Chen Fei after retiring
Due to her poor family, Cheng Fei was unusually simple. During her time at the Wuhan Sports Center, she never went shopping or bought clothes, a dress in summer and a cotton jacket in winter. Even on stage to receive the award, she and her teammates borrowed it.
In 2005, after winning the world championship, Cheng Fei won a huge prize money, a real estate developer gave him a new house, and Chen Ligao and his wife finally moved out of the tube building where they had lived for decades.
After Chen Fei became famous in the first battle, she handed over all her salary to her parents for maintenance, and the advertising expenses and bonuses were also handed over to her parents, maintaining the original simple habit and basically no expenditure.
In May 2004, after the Wenchuan earthquake, although Chen Fei was not a party member, she took the initiative to donate 10,000 yuan in "party dues."
In the following years, Chen Fei won the vault championship at the 2006 and 2007 World Championships with her "Chen Fei jump".
Since then, Chen Fei has become the "first sister" of the Chinese women's gymnastics team from an unknown little girl, and the photo has been hung on the wall of the gymnastics training hall of the State General Administration of Sports.
Although he has won numerous awards in the arena, he is not a competitive man. She herself once said, "I'm not this competitive person. ”
In 2007, Cheng Fei became the captain of the national women's gymnastics team, and she had more responsibilities and pressures. When preparing for the Beijing Olympics, I often can't control my emotions.
But after the grief, she will return to the training ground to continue training. Because she has nowhere to go but to win the gold medal, and winning the gold medal is her only goal.
In 2008, Chen Fei led the team to win the first Olympic gold medal for the first women's team in Chinese gymnastics. For many, this result can be said to be perfect, but it still leaves regrets.
In the vault final, Chen Fei made a mistake and won only one bronze medal. In the floor exercise final, she made another mistake and did not win any medals.
For a period of time after the game, Chen Fei could not walk out for a long time. She originally wanted to insist on participating in the next Olympic Games, but her body lit up with a "red light".
At this time, Chen Fei was in her 20s, and she was already considered an advanced age in the gymnastics team. But due to years of hard training, she has been struggling with illness. Fluid in her knees, ligament strains, etc. tormented her.
She can only insist on training on the side, and she does not dare to work as hard as before. In June 2012, a month before the opening of the London Olympics, Chen Fei completely ended her career due to a ligament strain and officially announced her retirement.
After Chen Fei left the arena, she gradually left the public's field of vision. After retiring from sports, she recuperated from an injury while working as an assistant coach for the national team.
In May 2015, after the National Games, Chen Fei officially graduated from Wuhan University of Physical Education with a master's degree in physical education. After graduation, she stayed at Wuhan Sports Institute to engage in education and enjoyed the treatment of associate professor.
In 2017, Chen Fei was elected as the vice president of Hubei Gymnastics Association. At each event, Chen Fei spoke steadily, smiled, confidently and maturely, and left a deep impression. But what is criticized is that her weight soared, once rising to 200 pounds.
Many people think that Chen Fei's weight gain is due to her depravity and overeating, but this is not the case. Chen Fei is actually a fattening physique, but it is not easy to find out if it is deliberately suppressed at all times of miscellaneous training.
Secondly, Chen Fei suffered from various diseases during her sports career. And she used a lot of drugs to cause endocrine disorders, and her weight was not controlled.
Of course, she also thought about hoping to lose weight. However, due to injuries, she can no longer bear too much exercise, and she can only give up losing weight and control her diet.
And perhaps because she is too overweight, she is still unmarried. And her marriage event has also become a heart disease of her parents, and she has not been married.
In 2022, at the age of 34, Chen Fei became the youngest vice president of Wuhan Institute of Physical Education, and she often participates in various activities on behalf of the academy as herself.
Today's Chen Fei is not as decadent as people imagine, but is getting better and better.